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A massive child pornography investigation in Ontario rescued 14 underage victims of sexual abuse and led to 249 charges laid against 60 people, police said Thursday.

The approximately month-long investigation was a joint effort with 27 participating police services - ranging from Toronto, Windsor, and Hamilton to North Bay, Cambridge, and Port Hope and led by the Ontario Provincial Police.

A majority of the arrests were made in the past few days, with 99 search warrants executed across the province. Charges include sexual assault, sexual interference, child luring, and possessing, distributing, accessing, and making child pornography.

The arrests were made across the province, in big cities as well as small towns and rural areas, OPP Det.-Staff Sgt. Frank Goldschmidt said at a press conference in Vaughan.

"This isn't just a big-city problem anymore," Goldschmidt said.

Drugs and weapons were also seized during the sweep.

Insp. Scott Naylor -- from the OPP's child sexual exploitation unit - spoke about how people engaged in child pornography differ from those in gangs or other types of criminal activity.

"If you're into organized crime, other people know you're into organized crime," he said. "When you have a sexual interest in children, nobody else knows this. This is your deepest darkest secret."

This is why people engaged in this activity will have "anonymous relationships with like-minded people" online, he said.

"Are they connected? Yes they are," Naylor said. "Do they know each other in a normal sense? No they don't."

Police had little to say about the rescued child victims. Naylor added they were "very young."

"What I can tell you is that there are some people who have been lured," he said. "And then there are some familial contacts where victims were identified."

Karyn Kennedy is the executive director of Boost Child Abuse Prevention and Intervention, an organization that connects underage victims of sexual exploitation and abuse with therapists and relevant resources.

"If you imagine the worst possible thing that can be done to a child sexually ... often, that's as bad as it gets," she said, adding she cannot speak specifically about the victims of the most recent investigation.

"And often, we're seeing more very young children, who don't even understand what's happening to them," Kennedy said.

Last September, Boost opened Toronto's first Child and Youth Advocacy Centre to aid child abuse investigations.

Police noted that of the 60 arrested in this most recent sweep, three were young offenders.

Six men from Toronto - ranging in age from 21 to 60 - are among those netted in the arrests.

One of those arrested, Dylan Banks, 28, of Port Hope, appeared in court Wednesday and was released on bail with strict conditions.